Mutual trade and investment of the Visegrad countries before and after their EU accession

Abstract:

The paper addresses the period preceding and following the EU accession in 2004 reconstructing the major developments in trade and FDI. It relies on the detailed bilateral trade and FDI data of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The assessment sheds new light on the growth and restructuring of trade due to integration into the European corporate structures.

But unlike trade, FDI between the four Visegrad countries did not change much in the years following EU accession. The conclusion of the paper is that foreign investors coming into these countries from the EU-15 and other advanced countries were the real engines of the revival in mutual trade.